Uncharted 2 - Part 2

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Here's the second half of our exclusive interview with Uncharted: Among Thieves game director Bruce Straley.

He reveals the intricacies and improvements of the new "stealth-action" gameplay, gives his take on the importance of stories in games, and his take on Lara Croft.

You can check out the first half of the interview here, if you haven't already. You naughty boy.

How does the new stealth mechanic work and how does it improve on the game's pacing?

Bruce Straley: Pacing is one of the keys elements we want to retain from Uncharted to Uncharted 2. We strive to achieve movie-like pacing to our games. We want the players to get into a flow and feel like they can't wait to see what happens next, which means avoiding those difficulty spikes that make players put the controller down and walk away from the game.

Action-stealth is meant to simply flesh out our enemy AI - we're not suddenly creating a stealth game as we've seen misinterpreted. "Action" representing the idea that we're trying to keep the pace up and "stealth" representing what we all know as taking out enemies unnoticed.

We don't want to introduce the frustration of being forced to move at the game's (presumably slower) pace by replaying and replaying a set-up due to failing a stealth-heavy situation.

We feel that providing the option of action-stealth improves upon the pacing by allowing the player the choice to get more invested in the set-ups and get to know more about the environments than a straight gunfight would allow. It also allows us to embed more narrative and story into the game play.

By showing what enemies are doing before you're engaged in combat and by overhearing some light conversations, you'll be able to see more of the story in context to the environment or situation. It also reinforces the story needs by allowing us to make set-ups more appropriate to the tone of the story.

Is Drake infiltrating an area? Are the enemies already in defensive positions? Whatever the story needs, we can have the enemies parallel that feeling now.

Choice is the other key word here. We've implemented the new action-stealth mechanics with the knowledge that not everyone likes stealth game play. We think it's fun, and it adds a lot to our ability to reinforce the story, but you should play the way you want. We're just giving the player the choices.

As a result of expanding our gameplay to account for action-stealth, there are two new behaviours added to enemies, "investigate" and "hunt." With "investigate" the enemies have peripheral vision just like humans.

When Drake enters this peripheral vision the enemies will look over in the direction they think they saw him in and depending on how long he was in this vision cone, they may just look or they may walk over and check out what they think they saw. Of course, that's why we've called it "investigate."

With the "hunt" behaviour the enemies have already spotted Drake and are in combat with him. While in combat the enemies make certain assumptions on where Drake is based on his last known location.

If they lose eye contact with Drake for a few seconds, one or more enemies will start hunting around the area, starting with his last known location, and then spread their search out if he's not found. So, our battles can be switched up from straight forward gun fights to an action-stealth battle midway through, picking off each enemy one by one as they separate hunting for Drake. This just further reinforces our focus on creating player choice in Uncharted 2.

These new play styles also required us to change the AI's navigational abilities too. If they are to hunt for Drake they'll need the ability to climb on the environment, jump across gaps, and drop down from ledges to get to him.

The benefit to this was our combat wasn't limited to flat terrain anymore. If the enemies think it's to their benefit to get higher vertically to get an advantage on you, they have that ability now. If you decide to jump across a gap, it doesn't mean you're safe, the enemies can chase you down by jumping that same gap.

Vehicle sections are making a return. The jet ski sections in the first game, we thought, were great. How will the new vehicle sections differ from the original? Land, sea and/or air vehicles maybe?

Straley: Interacting with and being on moving vehicles is a gameplay mechanic that will definitely make an appearance in Uncharted 2, it's one of those hallmarks of the genre, let alone the franchise, but we're not quite ready to reveal in what way just yet.

You have been previously quoted as saying you want Uncharted 2 to be "true interactive storytelling". Have you been at all influenced by games like MGS4, which, in particular, has almost unrivaled commitment to storytelling?

Straley: Wow, I said that?! If I used the word "true" in that statement, that would imply that other forms of interactive storytelling were somehow "false", and I don't think that's the case. I love playing games and the beauty of this medium is that there are so many different games to be made.

Telling a story inside of a game is based on what that game requires, there is no real right way or wrong way, just different. Now that being said, what we're trying to do with the Uncharted franchise is really capture that movie feeling by implementing all of the aforementioned features and by trying to implement them in a way that really makes the player feel like they are truly playing one of their favourite action-adventure movies.

Every game is going to have their own agenda or "take" on interactive storytelling, reflective of the individuality of the person or persons responsible for creating that game.

At Naughty Dog we feel there are certain merits to be found in cutscenes - a certain level on intimacy with a character is only obtained be getting to see their detailed expressions.

The subtext of a statement is sometimes only told, or at least embellished upon, through facial expression. Taking away control for the sake of getting a really emotional take on someone, or cutting on something that needs to be seen by the player to help the narrative along is very important in storytelling.

I applaud everyone in this industry trying their different approaches to interactive storytelling - this is just how we're collectively trying to push the medium. It's a fun and very difficult challenge and I don't think there is one answer to how it's to be achieved.

Do you think Nathan Drake can ever be as big a star as Lara Croft?

Straley: Why do you think he's not already there, if not beyond that point already, in terms of popularity?

I feel that Nathan Drake can stand on his own in any line up of the video game pantheon. We've created something new with him by infusing him with traits more associated with a good movie protagonist than just a video game icon.

It's not just us drinking the kool-aid either - according to not an insignificant number of reviews, press, and forums, people have really taken to Nathan Drake's character. I think people like him because he's compelling, and a much needed breath of fresh air in an industry that's been a bit stale for a while, in terms of characters.

Have you ever considered multiplayer gaming of any kind for the sequel? Co-op maybe?

Straley: We've seen a lot of debate in the community - on various blogs and forums - about whether or not we should implement multiplayer or co-op in the Uncharted franchise. There are some very compelling points that are being discussed both in favour of and against adding these gameplay extensions to our game.

Our heritage at Naughty Dog means we are open to exploring just about any possibility to change, improve or enhance our games, but only if we feel it makes sense to what we're trying to accomplish with Uncharted and can achieve the level of quality we are known for.

For now, our main focus is on Nathan Drake as the central character - we want to be able to concentrate the story on his personal journey.

Can we expect Uncharted to always remain a Sony exclusive?

Straley: The Uncharted franchise is absolutely a PlayStation platform franchise. We have enjoyed a long, fruitful relationship with Sony Computer Entertainment, not to mention that we're a wholly owned subsidiary!

Beyond that one, minor technicality, it's important to remember that Naughty Dog has excelled at focusing on one platform and therefore maximizing the potential of that platform.

We've already discussed just how much we're able to achieve with the PS3 just 3 years into the console lifetime and there's always room to keep pushing ourselves and the console. Focusing on one platform has garnered incredible success for us and there's no reason we can dream of to even consider anything else.

Any plans for a demo?

Straley: We don't have any announcements to make at this time.

The first game got post-release trophies. Any planned downloadable content for the sequel?

Straley: We have not made any decisions about downloadable content at this time, but we are open to exploring potential opportunities to expanding the player's experience as long as it maintains the integrity of the Uncharted universe.

Check out the first half of the interview here.

Mike Jackson